Regional Council Chairs

Imran is a seasoned hotelier with extensive experience of the Middle East region. Presently working with the Jumeirah Group since 2000, he joined the pre-opening sales team as Corporate Sales Manager at what was then called, Emirates Towers Hotel. Since then, Imran has moved up the ranks and has worked as Senior Corporate Sales Manager at Burj Al Arab, before moving on to sales in Jumeirah at group level.

Imran played a significant role in establishing the Key Account Management structure at Jumeirah in 2002, acting initially as a Corporate Key Account Sales Manager for the Gulf region and moving up to Assistant Director of Corporate Sales for the region in 2004.

He is currently Director of Corporate Sales - Global for the Jumeirah Group, a role he has held since 2006..

Among other key outputs, Imran plays a key role in Jumeirah Group's Business Travel segment strategy setting, Annual Corporate & Consortia RFP solicitation processes, Global TMC / Consortia partnerships, and internal sales policies and procedures relating to the Business Travel segment.

Imran is currently doing his Executive MBA with the London Business School.

I see my role as ACTE regional chair as a spokesperson of the corporate and make sure that corporate interests and opinions are taken into account. I encourage corporate to raise their voice on issues or changes which will impact them.

I want to promote ACTE as an educational & networking tool. We all need to learn on new topics; new technologies, new regulations, and ACTE will help corporate to keep on track. ACTE should also be the place where you can meet and exchange with your peers, share feedback and experiences or best practices.

As we say in France we all have rights but we also have duties, and I would like to see more corporate buyers or travel managers to participate in panels, forums, etc.

In March 2008, Georgie Farmer joined the Microsoft Corporation as the APAC Travel Manager, Asia Global Procurement Group based in Singapore. Georgie is responsible for the overall APAC travel strategy including business alignment and cost management, policy, travel agency, airline, hotel, car-rental and technology in 13 countries.

Prior to Microsoft, Georgie was with JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. as their VP of Travel, Asia Pacific for four years. Before joining JPMorgan, Georgie held various sales management positions with Diners Club Australia, a division of Citigroup from 1997-2004. Working on developing travel and purchasing expense management solutions for large corporate and government clients provided her with the impetus to move from being a supplier to a buyer. These experiences provide Georgie with a balanced view of the industry and a deep understanding of corporate travel management practices and challenges in the Asia-Pacific region. Georgie started her travel industry career with Ansett Australia, an Australian airline in 1986 and worked in various operations and sales roles.

An active member of ACTE; having presented at the 2007 Asia-Pacific Education Conference and served on the 2006 conference steering committee, Georgie believes in the need for organizations in Asia-Pacific to work together with ACTE in order to sustain continuous improvements to legacy practices.

Georgie holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship.

A native of Montreal, Annemarie’s career started 17 years ago in the hotel industry in various sales and relationship management positions in luxury hotels such as the Ritz Carlton, The Four Seasons and The Sutton Place Hotel. After 6 years in the hotel industry, she transitioned to the Travel & Expense Management field with American Express where she held a number of positions such as Sales & Relationship Manager, Director of Relationship Management and finally, Director of Business Development and Strategic Acquisitions where she lead the Canadian strategic sales and implementations of corporate travel and card programs for several global organizations.

Today, Annemarie is currently employed with MDS Inc. as Manager of Global Suppler Relationships applying her proven experience in vendor negotiations, supplier relationship management and strategic business planning.

In January, 2007, Annemarie assumed the role of Regional Chair for ACTE Canada Canada with a passion and focus on continuing the momentum of delivering dynamic and robust educational programs coupled with more than ever networking events. Additionally, with the support of a strong committee volunteers, team Canada will focus on creating strategies to continue to grow our membership across Canada.